Bruins can't complete comeback against Red Wings

Tuesday

Oct 15, 2013 at 6:00 AM

By Bud Barth, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

BOSTON — Claude Julien listened to the Patriots' winning rally on the radio while he was driving to Fenway Park Sunday night to witness what would be another amazing comeback by the Red Sox later on. Unfortunately for him, none of that magic rubbed off on his Bruins.

With the power play sputtering like years past, and key offensive figures Brad Marchand and Jarome Iginla continuing to fire blanks, the Bruins couldn't quite stack up to the Detroit Red Wings, who found some redemption for their 4-1 loss here nine days ago by skating to a 3-2 victory in Monday's Columbus Day matinee at TD Garden.

Loui Eriksson scored his second goal in two games, and Milan Lucic bagged his team-leading third of the season with 1:20 left to make it 3-2 and give the Bruins one last chance. But apparently Boston had reached its quota of miracle comebacks for one holiday weekend.

Goalie Tuukka Rask (24 saves) skated to the bench with 1:07 left, and the extra attacker helped the Bruins keep the puck in the Detroit zone the entire time. But between their shots that missed the net (10 in the third period) and the ones blocked in front (nine in the period), goalie Jonas Gustavsson had a fairly easy time of it, finishing with 28 saves, 10 in the final 20 minutes.

Gustavsson was starting in place of No. 1 goalie Jimmy Howard, who has a hand injury.

Earlier in the third period, the Bruins couldn't take advantage of a two-man advantage that lasted 1:54. They finished the game 0 for 5 on the power play, and are now just 2 for 20 on the season.

Both of their extra-strength goals came in that 4-1 victory over the Wings on Oct. 5; they are 0 for 16 in their other four games.

They managed three shots on Gustavsson during their five-on-three advantage, but on their four garden-variety power plays (five-on-four), the Bruins had a grand total of only two shots on goal.

"We're really struggling with our finish lately," Julien said. "It looks like we're feeling the pressure of scoring goals and they're not coming easy. ... Our goal-scoring countenance is probably not where we'd like it to be right now, but you've got to work through those things."

The Bruins actually played a pretty good game except for failing to finish their chances, and some spotty backchecking. Julien attributed all three Detroit goals to poor defensive coverage.

Pavel Datsyuk made a terrific play on the goal that put the Red Wings ahead, 1-0, at 11:33 of the first period.

He picked Patrice Bergeron's pocket at the red line, stickhandled into the Boston end, moved smartly around Zdeno Chara on the right side, and slid a cross-ice pass under a diving Johnny Boychuk and onto the stick of Henrik Zetterberg, who was streaking down the left side with a step on Reilly Smith.

His tough-angle forehand from the bottom of the left circle found an opening under Rask's arm for his fifth goal in just six games.

Just under three minutes later, the Bruins tied it when Eriksson, camped in the right circle, redirected a Boychuk shot from just inside the blue line between Gustavsson's legs at 14:12. It remained a 1-1 game until Detroit struck for two goals just 2:20 apart in the second period to grab a 3-1 lead.

Stephen Weiss got the first one at 8:21 when he got a step on Marchand and flicked home a wrist shot from the right flank. Daniel Cleary added a goal at 10:41, scoring from one knee in front of Rask after Daniel Alfredsson's pass from behind the net.

"We were creating chances, we were moving the puck, but the finish just wasn't there," Lucic said after the Bruins outshot the Wings, 30-27. "Right now, if you look at the last three ganes, (not) bearing down is probably the biggest thing when we get our opportunities. But other than that, I thought we played hard. I mean, you look at the first two periods, we only gave up three scoring chances, and they scored (on all of them). That's how good a team they are."

Meanwhile, the Bruins couldn't find a goal at crucial times, partly due to the struggles of Marchand and Iginla. Marchand, who was dropped to the third line on Saturday in Columbus and remained there on Monday, has just one goal and Iginla has just one assist through five games.

"I've got to be better and I know that, and it's been a wake-up call," said Marchand, who was averaging just two shots a game before getting four against Detroit. "I'm not blind, I know I don't have the most skill in the league, and I've just got to try to stay within myself and get back to what got me here and what made me successful.

"You get into that summer hockey routine, and you kind of drag that into the season a bit, so I've got to get away from that and get back to playing good hockey."

Iginla, meanwhile, hasn't been shy about shooting — his 19 shots lead the team — but he can't seem to score. Certainly, the future Hall of Famer who has 530 career goals will find his groove eventually, and he's keeping a positive outlook.

"I've unfortunately been here (struggling) many times — it's all part of the game," said the 36-year-old forward, wearing a wry smile. "You just try to work hard and keep going and keep getting the chances and keep saying that the next one's going to go in.

"I've had really good chances for a number of games, and whenever you win, it (not scoring) never feels as bad, you just shrug it off and say, 'next time.' But whenever you lose by a goal, it always feels a lot worse when you know just one of those (chances) could have made a difference."

Against the Wings, Iginla took 11 shots — five were stopped byGustavsson, four missed the net, and two were blocked as Detroit finished with 22 blocked shots. Marchand had six shots, two of which missed the net.

"The confidence isn't there right now," Julien said. "We know that when the confidence comes back, you're going to see us score some goals because we feel we've got some guys that can score goals on this team."

Contact Bud Barth at hbarth@telegram.com.

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